The flu wave “seems to have peaked” but the number of cases will remain high for the coming weeks, TDs and Senators have been told.
It comes as HSE interim CEO Stephen Mulvany has admitted that he “cannot guarantee” that people have not died due to overcrowding and high trolley numbers in hospitals.
Mr Mulvany and other senior HSE officials briefed TDs and Senators at the Oireachtas Health Committee on Tuesday morning.
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The meeting occurred just a fortnight after trolley numbers broke 931 on January 3. On Tuesday morning, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) reported that there were 561 people waiting on beds.
The HSE and the Government have stated that high incidence levels of COVID-19, flu and RSV - which some have dubbed a 'tripledemic' - has led to increasing pressure on emergency departments.
However, Mr Mulvany told the Committee that there are indications that flu has now peaked.
He said: “[Influenza is] kind of giving indications that it has peaked. It'll spend a number of weeks high before it starts going down fully. It'll still be high for a number of weeks.
“That will take us to the end of January and into February.”
Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer at HSE also said that flu seasons can last into April.
He explained: “If we look at the flu season this year, it started earlier. It's been climbing for longer and it has peaked higher for many years. Flu seasons can go on not just to February or March but sometimes to early April.
“While it seems to have peaked now, it'll take another week before we're certain that it's peaked. It will take some time for those flu figures to fall down along with the COVID-19, to levels for the unscheduled care pressures that we witnessed the past few weeks, won't be nearly as severe.”
During the meeting, Mr Mulvany was asked by Fine Gael Senator Martin Conway to confirm whether people had died due to the overcrowding in emergency departments.
The CEO said that he could not guarantee this.
Mr Mulvany said: “I think that that's a risk. I can’t give you certainty on that because I don't have certainty on that.
“What we have certainty on is that health systems [delays] across the board can lead to patients suffering avoidable preventable harm, in some cases death.
“We also know that delays in admission are associated with excess mortality. That's what I do know.
“I can't give you specifics in terms of what you’re looking for in terms of a guarantee.”
In response to Labour senator Annie Hoey's question on whether "a conservative" estimate of 50 people a week are dying as a result of admission delays, Mr Mulvany said those figures were based on a large NHS study that indicated for every 82 delays of over five to 12 hours for admission, it was associated with excess death.
"What could you say to anyone whose loved ones are caught up in it? What else could you say other than it's just completely unacceptable, but our words are going to be meaningless to anyone in that situation, in fairness," he added.
The Green Party’s Neasa Hourigan later read Mr Mulvany a letter sent to her by a parent who had brought their child to Temple Street Hospital in recent weeks.
The letter said: “On Christmas night I genuinely feared a child would die because of the absolute carnage of the emergency department in Temple Street.”
Deputy Hourigan said that it happens “every Christmas that children get sick and GP hours are disrupted”.
She said that measures should have been put in the palace before the first week of January to avoid busy scenes in hospitals over Christmas.
Mr Mulvany said: “I’ve sat in Temple Street myself with young children for far too many hours.
“We agree that's not acceptable”.
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